Chapter Ninety-Seven: Going Along with the Mistake

Neither Feng Chengqian nor Hipper had very much real combat experience.

Compared with the Royal Navy, the navy of the German Empire was a very young institution. In the eyes of some Britons, it looked more like the boastful upstart of a new rich man. That youth had a very serious consequence: the officers and men of the Imperial Navy had no deep tradition to draw upon, and they were sorely lacking in experience of actual battle.

In simple terms, the Imperial Navy was still an immature fleet.

After Raeder had been sent off, Hipper and Feng Chengqian remained in the command bridge. Both of them knew that the Grand Fleet must be nearby and that the battle was about to begin. Both were deeply uneasy, because so far they had found only Beatty’s battlecruiser squadron and had not yet sighted Jellicoe’s main body.

Feng Chengqian was clearly the more troubled of the two.

Beatty’s turning back halfway through the chase was plainly no good omen.

According to the reconnaissance reports from the Stralsund and the Rostock, Beatty’s force had a speed of more than twenty-four knots. For that reason, when Raeder set out in pursuit, he increased speed to twenty-six knots, which was also the maximum he could make. The problem was that the main body of the High Seas Fleet could only do twenty knots, and it could not maintain even that speed for long. The point was simple enough: the Nassau class and the Rheinland class had a top speed of only twenty knots, and their reciprocating steam engines could not run at full power indefinitely.

Holding that speed for a few hours was no problem; longer than that, and the four battleships would begin to fall behind.

Of course, even a few hours could be a problem.

For every hour that passed, the distance between the main fleet and Raeder’s squadron would grow by six nautical miles, and after four hours Raeder would be beyond the support range of the main fleet. The trouble was that Raeder would need at least twenty hours—until the morning of the eleventh—to catch Beatty, unless Beatty turned south again along the way. In other words, so long as Beatty did not turn back, even if Raeder caught him, he would do so without the support or cover of the main fleet.

Clearly, Beatty’s purpose in withdrawing was to draw Raeder on in pursuit.

The moment Feng Chengqian realized this, he went at once to Hipper and voiced his concern.

In fact, Hipper had been thinking about exactly the same thing.

"Whatever the case, we first need to determine whether Beatty is trying to lure Raeder northward."

"The real question is how we can determine that."

Feng Chengqian sighed inwardly; he simply could not think of a way.

"At present, all we can do is suspect that Beatty is trying to bait Raeder into pursuit. But we must prepare for the worst." Hipper paused briefly, then went on. "My suggestion is to have Raeder reduce speed and keep the same pace as Beatty."

"This..."

Although Feng Chengqian’s grasp of naval strategy and the planning of fleet actions was no worse than that of any admiral, at the tactical level he was still far less capable than a professional soldier like Hipper. In a sense, Hipper was more like Feng Chengqian’s operations officer.

"To put it simply, we want Raeder to keep a proper distance from us."

Feng Chengqian nodded to show that he understood Hipper’s meaning.

"If our speed differs from Raeder’s by about four knots, then before nightfall the distance between us will not exceed thirty nautical miles. After dark, even if we run into the Grand Fleet, it is unlikely to come to battle." Hipper spread open the chart. "Once night falls, Raeder can slow again and close the distance during the darkness. In that way, even if Jellicoe is waiting for us to the north, we can still seek him out and fight him after daybreak."

"Then that seems to be the best choice."

"To be precise, it is the best choice available to us right now."

Feng Chengqian glanced at Hipper, as if not entirely understanding what he meant.

"That means there is a very strong chance the battle will begin tomorrow." Hipper let out a long breath. "If that happens, we will have to defeat the Grand Fleet in the battle, or at the very least force it back into the Bay of Biscay. Otherwise we will have no way to cover Count Spee."

Feng Chengqian’s brow twitched several times before he remembered that Spee’s fleet would enter the North Sea on the fourteenth.

In other words, if the Grand Fleet was not defeated in the battle on the thirteenth, there was little chance that Spee’s fleet could even escape a blow from it.

Clearly, this was exactly the issue Hipper feared most.

"You’re right, but I don’t think there is any need to worry."

"You mean..."

"Our purpose from the beginning was to meet the Grand Fleet in a decisive battle. Even if we fail to destroy it completely, we can certainly make Jellicoe pay a heavy price." Feng Chengqian smiled. "Think about it: after fighting us, would Jellicoe still be willing to keep his eyes fixed on Spee?"

Hipper frowned, still somewhat doubtful.

"We have already concluded that Jellicoe will not seek a decisive battle with us on his own. What he needs is simply an opportunity to show his country that the navy has done its duty. Put plainly, if he can force us to retreat in a fleet action, then even if he suffers substantial losses, he will still be able to convince the public that the Royal Navy can defend Britain itself. Once that main purpose has been achieved, even if he were given a better opening, he would not let the Grand Fleet take any further risks."

"So Jellicoe would choose to withdraw?"

Feng Chengqian nodded. "So long as we make contact with the Grand Fleet, whatever the outcome of the battle, Jellicoe will turn his ships for home."

"In that case, there really is nothing to fear."

"Of course, it would be best if we win." Feng Chengqian smiled again. "As you said, by tomorrow the situation will be even more favorable to us."

"Then I’ll have Raeder slow down at once."

"That is the proper course. What we should be most concerned about now is Raeder falling into a trap. We absolutely cannot let him run the risk alone."

Hipper said no more. He drafted a telegram at once and had the signals officer send it off.

The trouble was that the message did not have the effect they had hoped for.

Raeder owed much of his rise to Feng Chengqian. To mention only one thing, it had been Feng Chengqian who had suggested to Tirpitz that he be brought into the High Seas Fleet as Hipper’s assistant. As a result, in just a few short years, Raeder had risen from captain to colonel.

In the battle of the Shetlands, Raeder had performed brilliantly and had thereby been awarded the Blue Max, the highest honor a soldier of the Empire could receive.

That victory, however, had also left Raeder somewhat carried away with himself.

In Raeder’s view, there was no need at all to slow down and wait for the main fleet to catch up, because he had six powerful battlecruisers under his command, while Beatty had at most three. Even the danger Hipper feared most—the possibility of an ambush by the main force of the Grand Fleet—did not seem like a real problem to Raeder. The battleships in Jellicoe’s hands could do no more than about twenty knots at top speed, while his battlecruisers could steam at more than twenty-six knots, enough to shake off the Grand Fleet at the critical moment.

Besides, in Raeder’s view, it would be a terrible pity to miss the chance to annihilate Beatty simply out of caution.

More importantly, Raeder believed that if Hipper continued at full speed and then reduced speed after nightfall, he could still rendezvous with the main force by the following morning.

In short, Raeder saw no reason whatsoever to slow before dark.

The result was that even after receiving Hipper’s order, Raeder did not reduce speed and continued pursuing Beatty at twenty-six knots.

At the same time, Jellicoe was thinking about the same problem.

In a sense, Jellicoe’s situation was even worse, because until four in the afternoon Beatty had no idea that Raeder was right behind him. In other words, Jellicoe had no idea where the High Seas Fleet was, and therefore no way of knowing its intentions.

Fortunately, he thought of the matter in time and warned Beatty at once.

As a result, during the retreat Beatty assigned four light cruisers to guard the rear and widened the search radius to forty nautical miles. Around four in the afternoon, the light cruisers he had dispatched finally found something: they sighted Raeder, still pressing hard after them.

Naturally, Beatty did not risk a decisive battle with Raeder.

The balance of force was plain enough. No matter how valiant Beatty might be, he could not defeat Raeder.

In addition, Beatty had another important gain: by evening he had become fairly certain that the main body of the High Seas Fleet was not following behind Raeder. Since Raeder had not reduced speed as ordered, the distance between him and Hipper had now grown to more than thirty nautical miles.

It could be said that from this point on, so long as nothing unexpected happened, Jellicoe already had victory in his grasp.

Once he had confirmed that Hipper was not following behind Raeder, Jellicoe ordered the Grand Fleet to turn toward him and closed in according to the speed reported by Beatty. Judging by the time, Beatty would lead Raeder into Jellicoe’s striking range before dawn on the thirteenth. Though Beatty’s three battlecruisers looked rather thin on paper, they would certainly be able to pin Raeder down.

In other words, once Raeder entered Jellicoe’s striking range, his chances of escape would be slim.

The problem was that surprises could arise on the battlefield at any moment.

During the night of the twelfth, Raeder did not obey Hipper’s order. But at dawn on the thirteenth, he did slow the fleet. Because he had not slowed earlier, he brought the squadron directly down to sixteen knots, four knots below what Hipper had requested.

Clearly, this was an unforeseen development.

As Raeder reduced speed, Jellicoe’s dream vanished like smoke.

At that point, Jellicoe had to confront a more serious question: why had Raeder slowed down?

Beatty’s report had said that he had already shaken off the enemy’s scouting cruisers. In other words, Raeder had no reason to know that Beatty had slowed at dusk, and therefore no reason to slow himself. Jellicoe could only conclude that Beatty’s report had been mistaken.

From that, a more important inference followed: Hipper was pressing up from behind at full speed.

So then—was there still any point in trying to destroy Raeder?